Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Korail excludes unionists children from scholarship
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Korail and its subsidiary railway scholarship foundation have decided to disqualify the children of employees who have been slapped with internal disciplinary action from receiving scholarships, drawing protest from the workers' union.
Korea' railway operator said its scholarship foundation held a board of directors' meeting last December and decided children of those who had received disciplinary punishment over the past five years would be ineligible for the scholarship program.
There used to be a provision that excluded the children of workers who were reprimanded in the last three years from being eligible for the company scholarship, but it was abolished in April 2009.
"We removed the qualification rule last year but decided to reinstate it this year," a scholarship committee official said.
The directors of the railway scholarship foundation are mostly executives at the railway operator. Korail Vice President Sim Hyeog-yun serves as the board chairman.
The Korea Railway Workers' Union (KRWU) said the children of employees, who participated in a strike and were punished, were being excluded from the benefits.
The KRWU held the longest railroad walkout of eight days from Nov. 26 last year and the 12,000 union members who joined the strike cannot apply for the scholarship program, which offers a maximum of one million won per semester for university students.
"The clause was established when Korail President Huh Joon-young was taking disciplinary action against the unionists. The scholarship foundation is managed by Korail executives," a KRWU official said.
"This is a guilt-by-association system, not awarding scholarships to the children of union members who participated in strike action."
However, Korail refuted the union's claim, saying that the provision has been on the books since 2004.
"The regulation was removed accidentally last April when we revised the internal rules. The committee found out about it later and decided to reinstate it in December," a Korail spokesman said. "We did not intend to just disadvantage workers who participated in the walkout."